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Where After Is
Marie of Stahlbaum is inching closer to marriage with the Rat King, until her friend Drosselmeyer realizes it's time to help her and fix his century old mistake.
Prince Cristian Dietrich was cursed to remain a doll for the rest of his life instead of facing death with the rest of his family. If Marie agrees to help break Cristian's curse, she can free herself from an unwanted marriage. But nothing is ever as easy as it seems, and too often the price is greater than first believed.
Prince Cristian Dietrich was cursed to remain a doll for the rest of his life instead of facing death with the rest of his family. If Marie agrees to help break Cristian's curse, she can free herself from an unwanted marriage. But nothing is ever as easy as it seems, and too often the price is greater than first believed.
73 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 4, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 9, 2017
In this book, a girl named Marie joins a nutcracker prince to quest for magic, which has been gone from the land for many years. Their adversaries are the Sugarplum Fairy and the Rat King, both of whom caused this loss of magic.
There were elements of this book that I certainly enjoyed. Marie and Cristian, the nutcracker, were decent characters, and the narrative voice was pretty good. However, ultimately for me the setting was too confusing for me to follow. I got the backstory for the most part, but I couldn't picture it. Are we in generic medieval fantasy-land or somewhere more modern? What is the climate like? What is it like to live there for Marie and her friends? I couldn't really pick up on the atmosphere of the setting enough to really immerse myself.
This might be because of all the Nutcracker references. The story does not actually have much to do with the Nutcracker ballet story and in fact the setting is nothing like 1890s Russia as far as I can tell, so the clash of references like "Drosselmeyer" and "The Rat King" with what would otherwise be a fairly typical fantasy quest confused me. While I liked the idea of a human turned nutcracker, the allusions in a world that different from the Nutcracker setting, combined with a plot that also had little to do with the Nutcracker, didn't really work for me.
However, there was little I disliked about this story. I merely found it confusing. So if you like quest stories that are novella-length and include transgender characters, you might enjoy this book. Just don't go in expecting the Nutcracker and I expect things will go much better for you.
I received an ARC on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
There were elements of this book that I certainly enjoyed. Marie and Cristian, the nutcracker, were decent characters, and the narrative voice was pretty good. However, ultimately for me the setting was too confusing for me to follow. I got the backstory for the most part, but I couldn't picture it. Are we in generic medieval fantasy-land or somewhere more modern? What is the climate like? What is it like to live there for Marie and her friends? I couldn't really pick up on the atmosphere of the setting enough to really immerse myself.
This might be because of all the Nutcracker references. The story does not actually have much to do with the Nutcracker ballet story and in fact the setting is nothing like 1890s Russia as far as I can tell, so the clash of references like "Drosselmeyer" and "The Rat King" with what would otherwise be a fairly typical fantasy quest confused me. While I liked the idea of a human turned nutcracker, the allusions in a world that different from the Nutcracker setting, combined with a plot that also had little to do with the Nutcracker, didn't really work for me.
However, there was little I disliked about this story. I merely found it confusing. So if you like quest stories that are novella-length and include transgender characters, you might enjoy this book. Just don't go in expecting the Nutcracker and I expect things will go much better for you.
I received an ARC on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
October 7, 2017
A short but fast paced story. Ashe's prose is easy to read as always and her love for fairytale inspired stories is obviously prevalent here given the setting. I liked the dynamic of the main pair and because i'm a sucker for siblings, i also liked the little snippets we get to see of Marie and Fritz's interactions. NGL i do hope if Ashe ever revisits this world one day maybe we can see a story from Fritz's point of view of something. *hint wink nudge*
Alas i didn't give a five star because while the fast pace helped that things didn't drag, i still also wish like there could be more? perhaps a bit more fleshing out of certain world building and backstory details? Like it's not as if they're that lacking by any means (in fact it's fitting for the length that the story is), but i'm a lover of those things so i still always want more so to say.
Nevertheless i still enjoyed it and look forward to what ever new story might come next!
Alas i didn't give a five star because while the fast pace helped that things didn't drag, i still also wish like there could be more? perhaps a bit more fleshing out of certain world building and backstory details? Like it's not as if they're that lacking by any means (in fact it's fitting for the length that the story is), but i'm a lover of those things so i still always want more so to say.
Nevertheless i still enjoyed it and look forward to what ever new story might come next!
November 14, 2017
A fresh spin on one of the lesser-adapted fairy tales. Longer thoughts here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/15363242
December 1, 2020
I havent actually read it, so sorry for the fake review, I wish you could just write comments, but anyway I'd love to read it but I can't find it anywhere! Does anyone know where I can read this book?
November 28, 2017
oh
This was enjoyable.
Some turns I didn't expect which is always nice.
Prose was good.
Pacing was off but short stories are hard to get right in that respect.
This was enjoyable.
Some turns I didn't expect which is always nice.
Prose was good.
Pacing was off but short stories are hard to get right in that respect.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews